My 2-yr cell phone contract is expiring and I want to get a new phone. I'm getting the Treo 650. It's a PDA phone running Palm OS. It has pretty good bluetooth compatibility, and I've heard there are lots of options for GPS add ons. Anyone here doing anything like this or have knowledge of it?

I had a buddy who had a phone/pda like that. Bad news. Let me tell you the story.

We were out ice fishing last season and he had his phone/pda with him. Because we had no snow and my 4 wheeler is a one-wheel-drive wonder, I would just spin in circles on the ice unless I had something to drag me down on the power side. I guess we had a beer or two also but when we were coming back into shore my buddy was needed to hang onto the rack and drag his feet so we could drive straight on the ice. We hit a small ice ridge or crack or something and my buddy fell flat on his side where the phone/pda was. The good news was the phone survived just fine. Bad news, cracked ribs.

So I guess If you were planning on dragging behind a 4 wheeler across the ice I would have to recommend that you don't buy that phone/pda. It's too big for that. Other than that it should be a nice phone.

Reminds me of the time I jumped on the back of my buddies camper for a short ride down the street. He hit a bump, I went up in the air, my feet came down and stopped but my face kept going. I lost a few teeth in that bit of tom foolery.

If you're planning on dragging this along caching, I wouldn't. It's an expensive thing to get broken. I have a Zire 72 that I like otherwise, it has the bluetooth and most of the other feature of the Treo.

With the Treo, make sure to get a view of the screen in direct sunlight. The one I had 3 years ago was VERY hard to see. I'm sure they have come up with better tech since then, but it was something you might want to check..._________________I am amazed by how many people harp on the need to speak and write English in this country while exhibiting a fundamental lack of skills in the areas of spelling and sentence composition. Would this be irony, hypocrisy, or both?

Yes, I did just that (for the same concern). It was hard to find one locally I could look at, but I found an open box at Office Max over on France. Someone had returned it because they couldn't activate it for whatever reason. So, it was still charged up. I wanted to see what it felt like in my pocket, making sure it wasn't too big. They also let me take it outside to look at the display. It was a lot easier to see than my Garmin iQue M5. I love everything about the M5 except for the seeing the display in sunlight.

I use a Treo 650 on Cingular. I'm mostly happy with the cell phone service, and very happy with the Palm OS functionality.

I use the Pocket Queries feature on Geocaching.com with mobipocket in the 650, so I can have the web site contents with me when I am out caching. That's been a big help so you don't have to try to remember all the details of the caches you browsed before taking off.

I just wrote a program for a free Basic interpreter that runs on Palm OS to do the a=1, b=2, ... z=26 arithmetic that is used all the time in puzzle caches. This will also be handy out in the field. I would be happy to share this if anyone else is interested.

I have a Treo 650 and I like it OK, but I am in the process of switching to a Motorola Q (which is windows-based). I love PalmOS, and the calendar/task list stuff is great, but the phone application kept crashing on me, and the web browser drives me up the wall. The lack of broadband is also a problem. It's nice that it runs cachemate.

The Motorola has a decent web browser and phone (so far), but the task list is terrible. I'm still in the process of getting used to it, and it has a bunch of annoying quirks, but I'm thinking I'll stick with it. It doesn't run cachemate, but I can use html files instead, which seems to work fine.

The Motorola has a decent web browser and phone (so far), but the task list is terrible. I'm still in the process of getting used to it, and it has a bunch of annoying quirks, but I'm thinking I'll stick with it. It doesn't run cachemate, but I can use html files instead, which seems to work fine.

I used a Q when I was on vacation (my wife's friend had one). I'm shocked at the browsers on these mobile devices. Absolutely none of them (other than the Sidekick) has a viable browser. The keyboard wasn't comfy to use and the speed (even WAP or XHTML or whatever the Q uses) was slow.

I don't like a lot of things about the Sidekick (no tethering) but it beats just about any mobile device out there._________________Sad state of affairs.

I also have a Treo 650 and just started to use cachemate, so far, I have really enjoyed it, and yes the GC WAP site is slow, and it crashes on me if I try to log a find, but I'm able to use it to view a cache, which is nice.

I have a Treo 650 and I like it OK, but I am in the process of switching to a Motorola Q (which is windows-based). I love PalmOS, and the calendar/task list stuff is great, but the phone application kept crashing on me, and the web browser drives me up the wall. The lack of broadband is also a problem. It's nice that it runs cachemate.

The Motorola has a decent web browser and phone (so far), but the task list is terrible. I'm still in the process of getting used to it, and it has a bunch of annoying quirks, but I'm thinking I'll stick with it. It doesn't run cachemate, but I can use html files instead, which seems to work fine.

Spoke too soon.. Returned the Q and got a Treo 700p. The Q was too slow and quirky, the task list is unusable, and I need cachemate. The 700p will have faster internet, and maybe the other stuff will be fixed. Better the devil you know, I guess.

I'd get a Sidekick, but it's too big, and I don't feel like switching to T-Mobile.

I have a Treo 650 and I like it OK, but I am in the process of switching to a Motorola Q (which is windows-based). I love PalmOS, and the calendar/task list stuff is great, but the phone application kept crashing on me, and the web browser drives me up the wall. The lack of broadband is also a problem. It's nice that it runs cachemate.

The Motorola has a decent web browser and phone (so far), but the task list is terrible. I'm still in the process of getting used to it, and it has a bunch of annoying quirks, but I'm thinking I'll stick with it. It doesn't run cachemate, but I can use html files instead, which seems to work fine.

Spoke too soon.. Returned the Q and got a Treo 700p. The Q was too slow and quirky, the task list is unusable, and I need cachemate. The 700p will have faster internet, and maybe the other stuff will be fixed. Better the devil you know, I guess.

I'd get a Sidekick, but it's too big, and I don't feel like switching to T-Mobile.

I like the idea of using thumbs to type on the Sidekick. I've watched Silent Bob and it seems easy, even for a yeti. Can you hold a Treo the same way or do you have to hold it in one hand and type with the other?_________________Tupperware doesn't belong in the kitchen!

I like the idea of using thumbs to type on the Sidekick. I've watched Silent Bob and it seems easy, even for a yeti. Can you hold a Treo the same way or do you have to hold it in one hand and type with the other?

Well, it's not as easy because the treo is much thinner, but I tried it and I guess it works OK. I never do it though.

I don't blame you for not wanting to switch to T-mobile. The only advantage would be to get the phone free after rebate. Other than that, generally speaking, coverage from the other providers is much better.